STORY: DANEKA HILL
The doors are opening wider every year for girls and young women wanting to pursue their dreams of playing football. Shepparton’s Grace Egan took the long way round to pulling on her boots, but she knows it’s going to be easier for the next crop of players.
Sport was a big part of Grace Egan’s childhood — but the AFLW player didn’t pick up a football until she was 15 years old.
“As a kid I was playing netball and basketball and getting into the basketball state team and things,” Grace said.
“One day when I was 15, a friend asked me to fill in on her local footy team. That was the first time I ever played footy.
“I grew up watching it and barracking for Geelong, but I didn’t know how to kick a footy.”
Once the boots were on it was hard to stop.
“After that I switched to playing just netball and footy. You could do that because netball was on Saturdays and footy was on Sundays,” Grace said.
“I did both of them until the end of Year 12.”
Grace played for the Shepparton Football Netball Club (the Bears) every day of the weekend.
The tiny gap between discovering footy at 15 and finishing Year 12 was absorbed by the club, madly perfecting skills and catching up to the pack.
“Once I started playing at 15 I made my way into the rep team, then the inter-league, then the Bushrangers. After the Bushrangers came the Victorian State team,” Grace said.
“In the Bushrangers you get to play all the other Victorian teams and they have people who watch those games specifically to pull out players for the Victorian State.”
Grace made the Victorian State team every year — right up until 2018 when she was in the under-18s (aka, the most important year to make the cut).
“I was pretty unlucky, for that to be the one year I missed out, because then I didn’t go ahead to the draft,” she said.
At the time, the AFL women's league was in its infancy, having launched in 2017.
Clubs were trying to pull together engaging women’s teams from a tiny pool of players — and those players were still figuring out how it all worked.
Grace said women’s footy would truly take off once the generation of girls who grew up watching women play finally take the stage.
“I was playing netball and basketball because that was what girls did. I’m only 22 and I started playing when I was 15.
“When we get to this next generation who can kick a footy second-nature at 12, it will be absolutely unreal.”
Grace admitted she “sort of fell into” playing for the AFLW.
“Once I finished school, there was nothing left in netball, but I still loved sport.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do for work and it was actually my mum and dad who picked me up and said I should chase footy in Melbourne.
“Growing up I loved sports. I was always involved in sports and my parents knew it was something that interested me.”
Not a lot of parents would do the same, but Grace’s father Leigh Egan is a world champion BMX rider and knew the benefits of chasing a professional sport — even if it didn’t pay the big bucks.
Grace said her parents’ awareness of opportunities for a female footy player would’ve “fed into” their decision to encourage her towards Melbourne.
“I ended up moving to Melbourne to pursue my football. I got into the Richmond VFLW team and played for a year, then Carlton got me for their AFLW team.”
Grace spent three years playing for Carlton at the pinnacle of Australian Rules football before making a return to Richmond in mid-2022 — this time on their AFLW line-up.
“That move back to Richmond just happened. I was looking elsewhere because I didn’t want to stay at Carlton for another season and Richmond really pushed to have me in their team.
“The one thing I take away from my experience in the women’s league is the opportunities that come from it that aren’t always related to sport.
“You meet so many people and there are women rotating in and out of the club, there are nurses and teachers turning up for training and physios and media people working with you.”
This exposure to professionals can be a massive boost for unsure school-leavers like Grace.
“I was fortunate to find my current job through football. It was through knowing someone, I told them I was interested in real estate and that turned into a job.”
Grace now works full-time as a real estate agent in Melbourne alongside her full-time footy career.
“The job and footy definitely clash all the time, but my managers are understanding and support me,” she said.
The AFLW is built around the players’ full-time jobs — training is weekdays, 3pm to late.
“On a good day you leave at 9pm, on a bad day it’s 11pm,” Grace said.
“You’re not doing regular hours like the men or other athletes are.”
This year the AFLW benefited from a big player wage increase.
“We had a 94 per cent increase in our wages this season, which was amazing,” Grace said.
“There are four different salary tiers and some girls are able to live off their (athlete) wages.”
This season, the minimum player annual salary increased to $39,184 (up from $20,239 in 2021) and the best-paid player — of which there are two per club — are receiving $71,935 annually (up from $37,155).
Grace said despite the higher wages, taking up footy full-time was still a risky move for the players.
“It’s not a replacement for a wage ... especially if you know footy isn’t your forever goal. You don’t want to lose several years in your other career.”
On top of this, the late training hours are inconvenient for women who want to solely focus on football.
Grace said at the moment people either loved or hated the AFLW — but in 10 years, the league will be unrecognisable.
We can’t wait to see it.